From Thermopolis to Cody is only 84 miles but it could seem longer if you don’t enjoy the Wyoming countryside. It’s dry rolling hills all the way, with few towns and a lot of open space. Fortunately, I do like the scenery, and Eleanor and Emma had books to read. I don’t think either of them noticed a thing until we pulled into Cody.

Cody is one of those towns that is almost entirely based on one famous person, in this case the larger-than-life “Buffalo Bill” Cody. He founded the town in 1896, opened the big hotel (“The Irma” named for his youngest daughter), founded the newspaper, and doubtless did many other important things to get this small town going. It is a bit like visiting Prince Edward Island and finding everything dedicated to the celebration of Ann of Green Gables, except that Ann was fictional and Buffalo Bill really existed.

Bill was a product of his times, at first a famed hunter of buffalos who certainly did his part in helping them along to near-extinction. (I’m not throwing stones, just pointing out a historical truth. At the time, buffalo hunting was brave and admirable work, but the men of the era were so efficient at it that they virtually wiped all the buffalo out in a matter of a couple of decades.) Later, Bill fought in the Civil War, was important to Native American relations, and finally founded “The Wild West” show that toured the world very successfully. He was by all accounts an exceptional man, and now I’m wondering if there’s a good 20th century biography of him that I might read.

The centerpiece of Cody is the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, which includes five superb museums. This is their annual fundraising weekend and so admission to the museums was free, a huge bonus for us. (Family admission is $40.) We toured the excellent Plains Indian Museum and the Draper Museum of Natural History, and I did a quick run through the Buffalo Bill Museum before everything shut down at 5 p.m. Definitely recommended.

For the past week we’ve been trying to coordinate a visit with Bert & Janie and finally today the details have come together. We are going to rendezvous in Yellowstone on Thursday, along with another couple (tenters, from South Africa) who we met today in the campground. Most of the Yellowstone campgrounds are closed this time of year, but it looks like the NPS campground Madison will suit us well. It’s about ten miles from the west entrance. There will be no hookups and the weather will undoubtedly be cold up there, but we’re all looking forward to it all the same.

In the meantime, we’ll settle into Cody. I’ve got work to complete before we venture into Yellowstone (since I will be completely and gloriously cut off from cell phones and Internet as long as we are in the park), and so over the next few days I hope to get everything under control to allow at least a four-day weekend in the national park.